Dr Jemma Purdey is an Indonesian studies scholar, with a particular interest in political biography and ethnic minorities. She is Research Fellow in the Faculty of Arts and the Australia Indonesia Centre at Monash University. Dr Purdey has published on Indonesian politics and contemporary history and about Australia’s relationship with Indonesia. She is sole editor of Knowing Indonesia: Intersections of Self, Discipline and Nation (Monash University Publishing, Clayton Vic., 2012) and co-editor with Antje Missbach of Linking people: Connections and encounters between Australians and Indonesians (Regiospectra, Berlin, 2015).

Dr Purdey has recently joined the Talking Indonesia podcast as co-host with Dr Dave McRae, and will be presenting an episode every six weeks. The premise of Talking Indonesia is to talk each episode to an expert on Indonesia about a topic of reasonably broad interest both to an academic and a non-academic audience. The podcast aims to cover big topics but to do so in a way that goes beyond what they can access in the mainstream media, and in a way that caters to people with an interest in Indonesia who don’t have expertise in the specific topic. Topics covered are mostly related to political and social issues, and in the coming months will focus on the role of the media the upcoming Jakarta elections, party politics and the Australia-Indonesia relationship.

“Now in its third year, in 2017, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University and an adjunct at Deakin University, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app.” (via Indonesia at Melbourne, University of Melbourne)